KANSAS CITY, Mo. — KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County, including Independence. Share your story idea with Tod.
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The Kansas City Roos men's basketball program sent an unmistakable message of its intent this offseason — hiring Mark Turgeon as its head coach and landing a jersey patch sponsor, JE Dunn, for the first time. It's also returning to the iconic Municipal Auditorium for its home games.
"It's a pretty awesome sight when you walk in there — right? — with the new scoreboards, the new seats, the theater seating," Turgeon said.
For the first time in eight years, Roos basketball is returning to Municipal Auditorium, which has hosted more NCAA Final Fours than any other venue. Built in 1935, the 91-year-old hoops cathedral in downtown Kansas City hosted the NCAA semifinal and championship nine times from 1940 to 1964 — and Turgeon said the history of the building is a powerful recruiting tool.
“I walk recruits through there (Municipal), and I probably drive them crazy,” Turgeon said. “They’ve got the little wood planks down there underneath the wood floor and I say, ‘Can you imagine Wilt Chamberlain played his national championship game on this floor right here? In Chuck Taylor's? Can you imagine how bad his feet hurt after the game? Then, I start talking about all the great players that have played in that building and how lucky we are
For Dr. Brandon Martin, vice chancellor and director of athletics for the Kansas City Roos, the move reflects the program's rising ambitions.
"When you have an elite coach like Coach Turgeon, you want to have the best presentation, you want to have the best opportunity and platform and venue to be able to recruit Kansas City to be able to create the best fan experience possible,” he said.
Turgeon, a Topeka native who played point guard at Kansas from 1983-87, has taken Wichita State and Maryland to the Sweet Sixteen and got Texas A&M to four straight NCAA Tournaments.
During a 24-year head coaching career, Turgeon is 476-265 overall with 10 NCAA tourney appearances and four NIT appearances. He led the Shockers to a 2006 Missouri Valley Conference title and the Terrapins to the 2020 Big Ten regular-season championship
"I've done it for a long time and, everywhere we've gone, we've won,” Turgeon said.
He said the vision that Martin and UMKC Chancellor Dr. C. Mauli Agrawal shared with him for the program convinced him to return to the Midwest and continue his coaching career.
"I understand that it's a really tough job,” Turgeon said. “We're 358th out of 364 (NCAA Division I teams). We've never done it (gone to an NCAA tourney). But I also believe in the city, I believe in myself, I believe in the people I surround myself with, and so I think we can get it done.”
Martin said Turgeon is the right person to lead that effort.
"Coach Turgeon is a fighter and he's a champion, and so he's not afraid of challenges," Martin said.
The Roos have never made an NCAA Tournament, but the school is determined to change that — and with it the perception of the only Division I program in Kansas City.
“We want to be that next Creighton; we want to be that next Gonzaga,” Martin said. “The time is right because, as I mentioned before, we have an elite coach who has a great system. He has a great coaching staff, so we want to be that premier, top mid-major program at some point in the top 25. But there's a ton of work that we still need to do in terms of NIL, rev share, recruiting, making sure our infrastructure is in place to make this a more attractive place for recruits.”
Eventually, Turgeon hopes for an on-campus arena, but for now his latest championship quest will be rooted at Municipal, where the Roos play their first game of the season at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6, against Southern Illinois.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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